The number of Muslims in Congress has doubled

Indiana voters on Tuesday elected a Muslim to Congress, only the second of that faith chosen in U.S. history. Andre Carson, grandson of the late Democrat Rep. Julia Carson, was elected to serve the balance of her term in the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election. She died in December 2007, after serving 11 years in the heavily Democratic district. The younger Carson, 33, a member of the Indianapolis City Council who converted to Islam about a decade ago, will serve out the remainder of his grandmother’s term through calendar 2008. He beat Republican Jon Elrod and a third party candidate with 52 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Elrod.

Good news, but I really dislike this phenomenon of spouses and children inheriting” offices from deceased politicians. Blood doesn’t confer qualifications or experience.

It’s practically feudal. Our political culture is supposed to be more evolved than that.

What, we still have an Electoral College? Touché, I stand corrected. I guess this makes perfect sense.